The recent Waitangi Day celebrations remind me of how a copy of the Treaty came to Otago. On April 29, 1840, HMS
Herald set sail from the Bay of Islands with what is known as "The Herald Bunbury" copy of the Treaty document to secure British sovereignty through the agreement and the signatures of Māori chiefs. Commissioner Thomas Bunbury was on board, as was my great-great grandfather’s cousin, Henry Wandesforde Comber. The young midshipman kept a diary that records the passage south from the Bay of Islands, and the mixed reception from the chiefs. This winter journey met with "weather so tempestuous" that at Palliser Bay, they had to anchor and wait for better conditions. Finally they reached "Akeroa" which he found very "pretty and productive", although the Ngai Tahu were very much on guard after their massacre at the hands of Te Rauparaha. They then sailed to Stewart Island, where Herald anchored at Sylvan Bay (Port Pegasus). No people were to be seen, but he and Major Bunbury went into the thick bush, and shot "a very curious bird, without wings, with a long bill for picking up worms". The major had the kiwi stuffed.
It was on Ruapuke Island that the great Ngai Tahu chief Tuhawaiki signed the Treaty, together with a declaration that Ruapuke was his. Comber wrote of Tuhawaiki that he "had never seen a finer man ... a perfect gentleman in his manners". His house was furnished in the European fashion, and they were served a lunch of fish, potatoes and pork.
The Herald then sailed north for "Otako" and reached Taiaroa Head on June 12. However, the weather was foul and the entrance dangerous, so only a small party went ashore to "communicate with the natives". They returned aboard with the signatures of Karetai and Korako.
The return north involved a stopover at Cloudy Bay, where their explanation of the principles of the Treaty was met with a suspicion that echoes down to this day, as Henry Comber records that the chiefs there were unwilling to sign away their land with the words: "Too much White Man make fool of the Māori".
For the complete diary, see Tour of Duty ed, W.D. McIntyre and M. McIntyre, McMillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies 1999.
